


First Date

by ahyperactivehero (ahyperactiverhero)



Category: Bandom, Fall Out Boy
Genre: First Dates, M/M, Tumblr Prompt, Van Days
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-17
Updated: 2016-12-17
Packaged: 2018-09-09 04:54:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8876794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ahyperactiverhero/pseuds/ahyperactivehero
Summary: Pete decides to take Patrick out for their first date.
(aka I needed a break from my huge story and decided to take prompts over on my tumblr)





	

First dates were supposed to be the worst thing in existence. Most of the time you didn't know hardly anything about the person you were taking out, like- do they like this restaurant? What about this movie? Would they be insulted if you tried to kiss them at the end of the night, or insulted that you didn't?

Pete rarely had these feelings towards first dates, as that implied that he cared more than he really did. Usually he was satisfied with taking a girl to a bar and seeing where the night went. If he was slightly more interested in her, and maybe hoping for a second date, then he might be convinced to take her to a nice dinner and maybe something fun afterwards, just so she could see him in his element.

So basically he was rarely nervous for first dates. But this one, this one was going to make him pull his hair out.

Maybe it was because he already knew his date, and had known him for a while. Maybe it was because they both already knew so much about the other that it was going to be hard to impress him. Or maybe it was because he didn't just want to have a one off fling with him but an actual relationship.

He chewed on his fingernails, groaning when he noticed it was peeling his black finger nail polish off. Should he scrape the rest off or try to repaint them? Would Patrick think it was weird that he was wearing fingernail polish on their first date anyways? He never thought it was weird in their day to day lives, but what if dates were different?

“Would you just calm down?” Andy said, banging his head up against the headboard of the bed. The person in the motel room next door banged on the wall, clearly unhappy with the noise coming from their room. Andy frowned and banged on the wall one more time before getting up to come and stand next to Pete.

“What's wrong?” he asked, standing on his tip toes to see perfectly over Pete's shoulder and see what Pete was looking at in the mirror.

“I just- is this good? Like, this outfit?” Pete asked, pulling his shirt away from his body. It was a black button up, still a little wrinkled from being shoved in the bottom of his bag for so long. He couldn't even remember why he had packed it but he thanked anyone up there who was listening that he had.

Andy gazed at Pete in the mirror. “Dude, Patrick's seen you before. He's probably just going to be impressed that you don't reek,” he said.

Pete lifted his arm and sniffed at his armpits. “I don't really smell, do I?” he asked.

Andy groaned and shoved Pete. “Seriously, dude, why are you so worried about this? It's Patrick,” he said. He didn't mean to sound mean, but it was _Patrick_. They'd all seen each other at their best and at their worst, which was way more likely to occur when you shove four boys in a van and send them off across the country.

Pete eyed Andy like he was insane. “Because it's _Patrick!”_ he said, as if that explained it all. “I just- I don't wanna mess this up.”

Andy stared at Pete for a moment longer. Then he sighed and motioned for Pete to come over to him. “Well then, get over here. Because your hair is ridiculous and you need to fix your eyeliner.”

XXX

Two hours later Pete was pulling the van up in front of their motel. He marched up to Joe and Patrick's room, trying his best to not look like he wanted to throw up on his own shoes.

The door creaked open, revealing a startled Joe. “Oh, shit, uh- hold on!” he said, slamming the door in Pete's face.

Pete shifted his feet uncomfortably and switched the hand that was holding the bouquet of flowers that he had went and bought for Patrick. Suddenly, he felt incredibly stupid, over-prepared, and over dressed. What if this wasn't like a _date_ date but like a hang out date? Was that why Joe had slammed the door on him, to warn Patrick that Pete looked like a fool on the other side of the door? Were they laughing right now behind the door about how ridiculous he was?

Just as he was about to give in to his anxiety and leave, Patrick opened the door. He was wearing an over-sized sweater, one of the nicest items of clothing that he owned on tour and that was clean and one of his plain trucker hats. It was pulled low on his head and a little bit sideways, as if he had shoved it on his head as he was walking out the door.

“Nice hat,” Pete said, correcting it.

Patrick batted his hands away, blushing as he did so. “Joe told me not to wear it but, you know,” he said. When he looked up his eyes went straight to the colorful flowers in Pete's hand. “What are those?”

Pete looked down and them, almost as if he too were surprised to see them. “Oh, I just thought they were nice. They're for you, by the way,” he said, shoving them at Patrick with a little more force than necessary.

Patrick grunted as the flowers hit him in the chest. He grinned at the embarrassment clouding Pete's face and accepted the flowers. “Well, they are very nice,” he said. He picked at them for a second before turning around and opening the door. “I'll just put these-” Joe popped through the opening, clearly having been eavesdropping right beside the door. He swiped the flowers out of Patrick's hands and slammed the door shut again. “Never mind then.”

Pete laughed and gestured for Patrick to follow him to the van. He even went as far as to open Patrick's door for him, which earned him a fond, if exasperated, look from Patrick.

“Did someone clean this?” he asked as soon as he was inside. The back looked a lot less trash-filled than it had a few hours ago when they had rolled into town, and it not longer smelled like four boys were living inside it. The floors even looked like there had been some kind of attempt to vacuum them, although there was a varying degree of success to it.

“Yeah,” Pete said, starting the van. His voice was quiet, almost shy, which was not something that Patrick would typically associate with him. “I figured that I would do this right. You know, pick you up, give you flowers, have a clean van.”

Patrick nodded his head, a smile taking over his face. This caused Pete's own smile to grow, expanding until he was sure that his face would split.

If Pete was honest, he'd been waiting all tour for this moment, maybe even before the tour had started. Originally he had mistaken his crush for awe, assuming that he just liked Patrick because he could sing and play guitar like no one else he knew. When that feeling didn't go away he assumed that it was because they got along so well, that he just really enjoyed being his friend. It wasn't until he saw how upset Patrick had been when he and a girl he had been talking to broke up that Pete realized the things he felt maybe went a little further than friendship. That maybe, just maybe, he actually really liked Patrick.

“I wish I could have done more,” Patrick said. A small frown came over his face as he picked at his jeans. They were still dirty, not to mention slightly damp from where he and Joe had tried to clean them in the bath tub and then tried to dry them with the crappy blow dryer the motel room had provided. At least they were cleaner than the rest of his jeans.

“No,” Pete said. All he wanted was to wipe the frown off of Patrick's face. This was supposed to be the best first date ever, there was no reason either one of them should be frowning. “I asked you out. So I get to do all this stuff.” He shot a huge smile over to Patrick. “You just get to sit there and look pretty.”

A blush rushed across Patrick's face as he rolled his eyes and looked out the window. Despite his efforts to hide it, a smile fought its way onto his lips.

Pete's smile just continued to grow. It was true though that he had been the one to ask Patrick out, so it was only fair that he was the one that had to plan everything. He thought back to that night, just a few nights ago, when he'd come up behind Patrick after the concert, completely high off of the adrenaline from the crowd and their success.

“ _Hey Patrick,” he'd said, wrapping his arms around Patrick from behind. Patrick had swatted at him, trying to free himself from Pete who had latched onto him._

“ _What are you doing?”Patrick had asked. Pete loosened his hold on him just enough to turn him around so they were facing each other, his hands still around his waist._

“ _Do you wanna go out with me?” Pete had blurted out. He'd planned on doing it differently, something involving candy and cuddles or something else sweet,but here he was blurting it out so God and everybody could hear him._

“ _Go where?” Patrick had asked, cocking his head to the side like a confused puppy._

_He'd been so cute Pete had almost backtracked. He probably would have if Andy and Joe hadn't been watching from the corner, possibly waiting to intervene if it ended in a fist fight. Pete knew Andy was aware of his crush on Patrick, was the one who had pointed it out in the first place, but he wasn't sure if Joe did. If he didn't, then he did now._

“ _Like, on a date,” he'd said. He tried to smile, to seem more confident than he truly was._

_Patrick's face clouded over. He stepped back, stepping out of Pete's arms. He turned towards Joe, the harshest glare Pete had ever seen on anyone on Patrick's face. “Did you fucking tell him?” he asked, his voice slowly rising._

_Joe looked at him, surprise all over his face. He'd stopped pretending to load his guitar and just stared wide eyed, his hands raised up. “I didn't say anything, dude, I swear.”_

_Patrick fully moved away, stepping towards Joe. “This isn't a game, Trohman!”_

_Joe stepped closed to Andy, using him almost as a shield. “I didn't tell him, Stump!” he'd said, spitting his last name out just like Patrick had done to his._

“ _What's going on?” Pete had asked, looking back and forth between Joe and Patrick._

_Patrick swung around, looking ready to take a swing at Pete himself. “Oh, don't pretend you don't know. This joke isn't funny,” he said. He stomped out of sight, leaving the other three band members staring at each other in his wake._

“ _What just happened?” Pete had asked, looking to Joe for answers._

_Joe threw down his guitar straps, glancing after Patrick like he was getting ready to chase after him. He sighed and finally turned towards Pete._

“ _Were you serious? About taking him out on a date?” he asked._

_Pete frowned, scrunching his eyebrows at Joe. “Yeah, that's kind of why I asked him.”_

_Joe sighed and scratched the back of his head. “You're timing is probably just a little... off.”_

“ _What do you mean?” Pete asked._

_Joe glanced back and forth between Andy and Pete. Andy nodded his head, as if to encourage him, which made Pete wonder if he knew anything about what was going on._

“ _Well, it's just that the other day he was telling me that he thought that he might like guys and all. And then he came to me earlier and said that he might, specifically, like you. So I guess he thought we were playing some kind of prank on him or something.”_

_Pete's mind stuttered to a halt. So Patrick did like guys? Not only did he like guys, he liked Pete? He liked him enough that he felt like he needed to tell Joe about it?_

_A feeling of guilt and irritation went through Pete, easily showing on his face. Surely, Patrick knew them better than that, right? He couldn't possibly think that he would make a joke out of something like that, or even ask_ anyone _out just for a joke, could he?_

“ _It wasn't a prank,” Pete said. He wasn't sure why it even needed to be said though. The only thing he was probably more serious about was the band at the moment._

“ _You might wanna go tell him that before he sets your clothes on fire or something,” Andy said. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder to the door Patrick had exited, probably heading to the van to do exactly that, or something else equally as horrible._

_Pete jogged off, figuring it would be pretty easy to find out where Patrick had went. Just follow the sounds of the angry, short man breaking the things nearest to him and it would be obvious. Hell, he might even find Pete to try and kick his ass if he was that angry about it._

_When he got to the van it was empty. One glance through the window told him that he probably hadn't even made it back to the van. It was trashed, but no more so than it usually was._

_He looked around the parking lot, hoping to catch a glimpse of the short, hat wearing man, but he was no where in sight. The only people around were people coming and going from the club, barely even sparing a glance in Pete's direction._

_Eventually, he spotted him. He was crouched down against the wall of the club, barely standing out against the shadows. If he hadn't been so pale he would have melted into his surroundings._

_He was cradling his head in his hands, covering his eyes the whole time as Pete approached. He only looked up when Pete's shadow fell across him, blocking even the meager light the security lamps in the parking lot managed to put out._

“ _What the fuck do you want?” Patrick asked. His voice was rough, like he was either about to cry or scream. The last thing Pete wanted was for him to do either one of those things._

“ _I just- I wanted to tell you I wasn't joking before,” Pete said. He tried to keep a little bit of distance between the two of them, in case Patrick decided to swing._

“ _Yeah, right,” Patrick said sarcastically._

“ _I wasn't!” Pete said. “I just wanted to take you on a date.”_

“ _Who'd wanna take me on a date?” Patrick asked._

_Pete hated the tone in his voice. It was the same way he said that he was stupid, that he said his voice sucked. It was a strange tone, a tone that said false things yet sounded so sure and convinced._

“ _I do,” Pete said. He stepped closed to Patrick, reaching out his hand. “I wanna take you on a date. Like, a real date, too.”_

_The doubt was still in Patrick's eyes as he looked up at Pete. Despite this he took Pete's hand and allowed him to pull him up off of the ground._

 

That's why this was so important, why it was so important that Pete go all of this right. He wanted to prove to Patrick that nothing was wrong with him, that he was okay even if he was gay or straight, that there were people out there who would want to take him out and who would actually like him. And that Pete was one of those people.

As they were limited on money- and stuck in a small town, they were severely limited in their options for restaurants. Pete had chosen a pizza joint that seemed to be pretty popular to the locals, knowing how much he and Patrick both loved pizza. After all, it was kind of hard to screw up pizza.

He did everything he could though to make it seem romantic. He chose the booth in the corner where the lighting was dimmed- because of a broken bulb, but Pete pretended it was because it was a mood enhancer, and he even ordered the pizza and drinks for Patrick.

This earned him an eye roll and a strong kick to the shins under the table.

“Ow! That's not how you play footsie,” Pete said. He reached down and rubbed at his leg while trying to look at Patrick as pitifully as he could.

“You don't have to do that,” Patrick said.

“Do what?” Pete asked, his puppy dog eyes still in place.

“Order for me like that. I'm not a kid,” he said with a roll of his eyes.

“You could have fooled me,” Pete said. “Besides, I wasn't ordering for you because I think you're a kid, I was ordering for you because you're my date. That's what you do.”

Patrick looked at him like he was an interesting puzzle. “Then why couldn't I order for you?”

Pete grasped at his hair, messing up the semi-straightened mess. “Because I'm the one taking you out! When you take me out you can order for me if you want.”

Patrick smiled at him. “Oh, so there's going to be another date?” he challenged.

Pete grinned and banged his head on the table. “I'm just going to stop talking.”

“This is going to be a very boring date then.”

Before long the two of them were laughing and joking like usual. If anyone had taken a glance at them they might have thought that they were just two friends laughing it up like they always do. If anyone had taken a closer look they would have noticed the way their hands kept darting towards the other, before sliding back to their side of the table. Both of them kept shooting nervous glances around the restaurant, the fact that they were in a small town with probably small minded people was an obvious worry for both of them.

They didn't let it ruin their night, though. Soon the pizza was gone and Pete was leading Patrick out, placing some of the last of their ones down on the table for a tip.

“Where are we going now?” Patrick asked as Pete held open the door for him.

“It's a surprise,” Pete said with a wink.

Patrick snorted and climbed in. He leaned over and opened Pete's door from the inside before Pete could reach it, earning him a giant grin from Pete.

The sky was dark now, stars glowing in the distance. Pete kept driving, driving until the town was behind them and they were headed up to higher ground. Soon, the paved road faded into a dirt road, leaving their van bouncing in an uncomfortable way.

“Where the hell are we going?” Patrick asked. He gripped the dashboard and the “oh-shit grip” in an attempt to steady himself enough to stay in his seat. Their van was not made to go off road like this, in fact they would be lucky to make it back into town at this rate.

“You'll see,” Pete said.

Eventually the trees thinned out and the road came to an end. Instead there was a grassy patch, over looking the entire town. Despite the town not being very big the lights in the distance made it seem huge, the only thing to rival it were the stars above them, which were just as brilliant.

Patrick leaned forward in awe, staring at the sight before him. It was a beautiful sight, Pete had to admit. He had scoped out the place earlier before but that had been in the day time. He had asked some of the teens in town earlier when he was cleaning the van where the best spot to take a date was for someone who lacked the funds for a nice date, and they had all unanimously said here.

Surprisingly, nobody else was there. He'd figured that there would have at least been a few more teenagers around, but then again it was the middle of the week and pretty late. Most of them had probably already been called home by that point.

“Wow,” Patrick said. He undid his seat belt and scooted forward even further so he could see everything. “This is beautiful.”

Pete nodded and undid his belt. He slid forward until he was leaning against the steering wheel, thankful that the horn didn't work or else he would have already set it off.

The two of them sat there in silence just enjoying the view. Then, Patrick started to fidget, tapping his fingers on the dash. Pete looked at him from the corner of his eyes, trying not to make it obvious he was staring.

“You didn't- uh, you didn't just take me up here to make out with me, did you?” Patrick asked nervously.

Pete's eyes grew wide, and he shook his head. Of course he hadn't, why on Earth would Patrick even think that?

_Probably because you took him on a date to the middle of no where, which is probably used by most kids in town as a hook up spot,_ Pete thought.

He literally wanted to punch himself in the face.

“No! I swear that's not why I brought you here,” Pete said, maybe a little too defensively. Granted, he wouldn't mind a few kisses from Patrick, but he wasn't going to expect them.

“Oh,” Patrick said. Pete had a hard time telling if he was relieved or disappointed to hear that.

“I just thought it would be cool to see the stars and the lights,” Pete said, his voice growing quieter.

“It is cool,” Patrick said.

The conversation trailed off for a while, until Pete finally couldn't deal with it anymore.

“So, uh, have you had a good time?” he asked. It was an awkward question to ask, and he even wished he hadn't asked it despite wanting to know the answer.

Patrick let out something between a giggle and a full blown laugh. “Yeah, Pete, I've had a great time.”

“That's good. That's great, actually,” Pete said smiling. He tapped his fingers against the steering wheel, the same way Patrick tapped against the dash. Patrick grinned at Pete, changing up the rhythm until they were both tapping out something completely new.

“I'm sorry I got so pissed off the other night,” Patrick said. Their impromptu song had come to an end and silence was once again filling the van. Pete hoped that it wouldn't be like that, hoped that their endless talks might possibly stop just because they were dating. That was the last thing he wanted to happen. Their talks were one of the main reasons he wanted to date Patrick in the first place!

“It's not you fault,” Pete said, scratching his nose. “You thought it was a joke. Honestly, I'm just surprised you didn't punch me straight in the face.”

“I wanted to. I probably would have if I knew it wouldn't have ended in me getting tackled by some well meaning security guard,” Patrick said.

There had been something tickling at the back of Pete's mind since that night, something that he had wanted to ask either one of them about but hadn't.

“Joe told me why you were so upset. He told me that you'd talked to him about some things recently, so I guess I can't blame you for thinking like that,” Pete said.

Patrick picked at his jeans again. “I still should have known you wouldn't do that. At least not to someone you were friends with.”

Pete had to agree with him, that had certainly hurt him, but there was something else that had bothered him. “Yeah. I just meant- you talked to Joe about this stuff? Like you questioning whether or not your gay?”

Patrick shrugged. “Yeah, he's my friend.”

Pete nodded his head. “No, I get that. It's just... You talked to him about this stuff but not me?”

Patrick turned to look at Pete. He honestly hadn't thought it would be that big of a deal. “Yeah, I guess so.”

Pete turned to look at him fully, sitting with back against the door. His legs were pulled up in the seat as if he were cold and drawing some sort of heat from them. “But why? You know you can talk to me about anything right? And why not Andy? Why did it have to be Joe?”

Patrick shrugged. It was obvious that he was worried about the good mood disappearing and just wanting to drop the subject. “I know that Pete. It's just- part of it was about you! You were part of the reason I started to question whether or not I liked guys, so it seemed wrong to talk to you about it.” He looked Pete dead in the eyes, letting Pete see the truth of his words. “And I've known Joe longer. You've known Andy longer. It seemed like I would be making him take sides or something by having him not tell you.”

Pete stared at Patrick. He'd heard from Joe that Patrick had started to question whether or not he liked guys, which had meant specifically Pete, but it was a whole other thing to hear it from Patrick himself. It made it true, which gave Pete a funny feeling. On one hand he was excited, that meant that Patrick had to like him back a whole lot, but on the other it left him with the overwhelming standards to live up to.

What if he was just a disappointment? What if he made Patrick question himself even more just because Pete couldn't be the best person for him?

Before Pete could spiral into an existential crisis Patrick continued. “That's why I told him. Plus, he told me he'd help me figure out if you liked me or not,” he said.

Pete snorted. “And how exactly did you two plan on doing that?” he asked.

“I don't know, we didn't get a chance to do anything,” Patrick said, his smile returning. He shifted in his seat, his smile still in place but his body gave off a nervous energy. “So do you?”

“Do I what?” Pete asked, his eyes as wide as an owl's.

“Do you like me?” Patrick asked. To anyone else it would have seemed like a simply phrased question, one said with at least some confidence. Yet Pete knew better, knew that Patrick lacked the confidence to say words like that and not worry about the outcome like some people.

Pete allowed a small smile to come over his face. “Let me show you how much I like you,” he said. He leaned over to the passenger seat and pressed his lips gently against his.

It was supposed to be a short, sweet kiss. That changed when Patrick brought his hands up to his face, holding Pete in place and preventing his retreat. Slowly, his hands slid from his face until they were tangled in Pete's hair, still dragging him closer.

Pete shifted until he was hovering over Patrick, pushing him back against the door. He tried to hold himself up by placing one hand against the door, but it didn't work. Instead he placed a hand next to Patrick on the seat to hold himself up and the other on Patrick's face. His fingers grazed Patrick's sideburns as his hand traveled up until it could knock Patrick's hat off of his head.

“Hey,” Patrick said, pulling back just a bit.

“Oh c'mon, Trick.” Pete said, leaning back in for another kiss.

A mischievous grin came across Patrick's face as he pulled away from Pete again. “I thought you said that you didn't bring me up here to make out with me?”

“Oh, well I guess we could stop,” Pete said teasingly. He began to climb off of Patrick and back into his own seat, but Patrick's hands grabbed at his button up shirt.

“Don't you dare,” Patrick said.

Pete's smile grew even bigger. “Oh, so that's how you are,” he said. Patrick flushed, and it was absolutely too adorable for Pete to not kiss him again.

They kept going for a few more minutes until Patrick pushed him back. Pete instantly jumped back, wondering if he'd done something to upset Patrick.

The dazed look of happiness on Patrick's face reassured Pete that he hadn't done anything wrong. “You know that Joe and Andy are going to have so many rules on when we're allowed to borrow the van and who's going to be sleeping with who now, right?” Patrick asked.

Pete groaned. “I'm so going to be getting the 'hurt him and I kill you' speech from Joe, aren't I?”

“You know it,” Patrick said, poking him in the chest.

He groaned again. “I don't know if you're worth it to hear that from someone younger than me,” Pete said. He glanced at Patrick's lips and slid back over until he was hovering over him again. “Maybe you should convince me?” he said. He wagged his eyebrows at Patrick and leaned back in to kiss him.

“Hm. You may be worth it after all.”

**Author's Note:**

> So like I said in the summary, I needed to take a break from writing Lyrics In A Bottle, so I decided to ask for some prompts over on my tumblr. Someone suggested first date and another one suggested van days so this was the result! I hope you guys enjoyed it, and if you want to request something you can send it over to my tumblr ahyerperactivehero, and I'll see about getting to it!


End file.
